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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 6510145" data-attributes="member: 60965">First off, might I suggest imposing a word limit on the first entry if you are looking for one? Both the 2nd and 3rd rounds have "brakes" built in via defined word limits: I explicitly looked for them for the rules for the first round and the lack of a limit on the first entry led me to believe length was not an issue as it clearly was in the future rounds. Had I known length was an issue, I could have casually shaved off 1/3 of the extra details in one pass (the encounter tables could each be summarized in a sentence, future adventures, and the "roleplaying X sections could be cut if I knew length was an issue). I did so just now to check and I dropped 2k words in 3 minutes of CTRL-X.Getting an auto-fail for exceeding an unstated word-limit is not especially satisfying, especially given how easily it could have been trimmed had I known. That said, you are volunteering to do this in your own time and it is entirely subjective - as you say.As to creating it:My first thoughts on seeing the ingredients were "how can I not make Farm Realm silly?" and "I have another Iron DM with Centaurs?" Then I got down to work.I wrote this in about 5 hours and the 45 minutes or so I spent editing was not nearly enough. As soon as I hit Reply, took a break and came back to read it again, I saw easily a dozen editing errors. In retrospect, I should have stepped away for 30 minutes first then done my editing passes with fresh eyes. If it was judged based on editing, I definitely deserved a loss as MortalPlague's editing was impeccable.My methodology starts by looking up all the different definitions of every word in every ingredient to get any potential meanings I might have missed. Once those are written down, I read over them a few times, looking for things that connect in my mind, plays-on-words, and begin to work out a setting and story line in my head to bring it all together.At this point, I try to make sure each ingredient is as essential as possible - I.E. how much would everything change if they weren't centaurs and were pixies or elves instead? If another ingredient could be easily substituted, then my ingredient is weak and I see if there's any reasonable way to strengthen it, especially if I can bind it to another ingredient or two. Sometimes they are as good as they can get given the time constraints and you just have to move on.A rough time breakdown for creating this entry:Defining ingredients - 30 minutesBrainstorming adventure based on ingredients - 30 minutesA blur of non-stop typing, busting out 12 pages of adventure - ~3-4 hoursWriting the ingredient summaries - 30 minutesWoefully insufficient editing - 45 minutesWailing and gnashing of teeth upon re-reading it after I hit Reply and saw editing mistakes - 5 minutesCongratulations to MortalPlague and thank you to phoamslinger for judging and Rune for putting this all together! It was a ton of fun (haven't done one in years) and definitely @ mention me if you need contestants for any future Iron DMs!I'll look forward to reading entries in future rounds.</blockquote>

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